Trust welcomes cattle passport scheme

The Badger Trust warmly welcomes the Welsh Government’s decision to implement nationally a voluntary scheme for cattle passports to record when animals were last TB tested for bovine tuberculosis [1]. North Wales farmers have already been attaching special stickers to passports in a one-year pilot programme.
Peredur Hughes of the Caernarfon Regional TB Eradication Board said the stickers had become an invaluable tool for the farming industry. “It is a quick and efficient way to identify when cattle have been TB tested, whether going through the mart or sold from farm to farm”, he said.
David Williams, chairman of the Badger Trust, commented: “We welcome this essential move to reduce cattle-to-cattle infection, although the Trust urges the Welsh Government to make the scheme obligatory. The pilot trial has shown that this simple, inexpensive idea — which we suggested in 2000 [2] — works, and we urge the Welsh Government to think again as this scheme should have been made compulsory long ago”.
NOTES:
[1] http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Agriculture&F=1&id=23231
[2] Press release by the National Federation of Badger Groups (now the Badger Trust), July 12th, 2000
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Badger Trust is the only charity dedicated to the conservation of badgers throughout England, Wales and all Ireland.
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